My wife got some fresh beets from a farmer who lives in the countryside outside Nagoya. Beets are root vegetables like turnips and Japanese radishes. They are a common food in Europe and in the U.S., but I have never seen them in Japan. I used to eat pickled beets when I was a boy. They were sweet and a little sour because they were pickled in vinegar. The beets I ate as a boy came in cans, so I never learned how to cook them. My wife has never cooked them either, but she heard that you could make a Japanese pickle called “senmaizuke” with them. She made it last night, and I tried it. The thinly sliced pickle was a deep reddish purple and tasted like the beets I remember. 　　　(132 words)